as on duty, Martina."

"Then, as usual, you thought wrong. Take off that armour; she says that
the sight of it always makes her feel cold after supper. I say take it
off; or if you cannot, I will help you."

So the mail was removed, leaving me clad in my plain blue tunic and
hose.

"Would you have me come before the Empress thus?" I asked.

By way of answer she clapped her hands and bade the eunuch who answered
the signal to bring a certain robe. He went, and presently reappeared
with a wondrous garment of silk broidered with gold, such as nobles of
high rank wore at festivals. This robe, which fitted as though it
had been made for me, I put on, though I liked the look of it little.
Martina would have had me even remove my sword, but I refused, saying:

"Except at the express order of the Empress, I and my sword are not
parted."

"Well, she said nothing about the sword, Olaf, so let it be. All she
said was that I must be careful that the robe matched the colour of the
necklace you wear. She cannot bear colours which jar upon each other,
especially by lamp-light."

"Am I a man," I asked angrily, "or a beast being decked for sacrifice?"

"Fie, Olaf, have you not yet forgotten your heathen talk? Remember, I
pray you, that you are now a Christian in a Christian land."

"I thank you for reminding me of it," I replied; and that moment a
chamberlain, entering hurriedly, commanded my presence.

"Good luck to you, Olaf," said Martina as I followed him. "Be sure to
tell me the news later--or to-morrow."

Then the chamberlain led me, not into the audience hall, as I had
expected, but to the private imperial dining chamber. Here, reclining
upon couches in the old Roman fashion, one on either side of a narrow
table on which stood fruits and flagons of rich-hued Greek wine, were
the two greatest people in the world, the Augusta Irene and the Augustus
Constantine, her son.

She was wonderfully apparelled in a low-cut garment of white silk, over
which fell a mantle of the imperial purple, and I noted that on her
dazzling bosom hung that necklace of emerald beetles separated by golden
shells which she had caused to be copied from my own. On her fair hair
that grew low upon her forehead and was parted in the middle, she wore
a diadem of gold in which were set emeralds to match the beetles of the
necklace. The Augustus was arrayed in the festal garments of a Caesar,
also covered with a purple cloak. He was a heavy-faced and